Turkey and Russia get along again. “Russian market is back, as it used to be in the good old days. We make collections faster than the big manufacturing countries. They choose us because we work at full speed and we deliver shoes much more rapidly”, recently remarked Süleyman Gürsoy, president of the Association of Turkish Footwear Entrepreneurs. The serious diplomatic crisis between the countries, which broke out on 24 November 2015 after Turkish air force shot down a military Russian plane, along the border between Turkey and Syria, is over at this point. As evidence of that, Turkish ambassador in Russia Hussein Diriyoz showed up, on its opening day, at Euro Shoes Premiere Collection, the footwear fair that kicked off in Moscow last week on Thursday. 35 Turkish brands participated in the exhibition: “Trade relations between Turkey and Russia are currently growing. In 2017, President Putin and President Erdogan met up eight times, thus confirming close dialogue between Russian and Turkish governments. We are talking about the Syrian crisis, but also about a growing cooperation, between our countries, in terms of commercial relations”, pointed out Turkey’s ambassador in his interview reported by Shoes Report. As regards commercial exchange, in 2017 business transactions amounted to 22 billion dollars, +40% compared to 2016: the aim is to reach, either this year or in the next ones, 38 billion dollars, which was the top record turnover prior to diplomatic crisis. Russia considers Turkey to be one of the international top players in the leather industry, including footwear. About 50% of Turkish footwear manufacturing is directed at export. In the first nine months of 2017, Iraq was the most profitable export market (74,7 million dollars), then Russia (56,3 million dollars).
Turkey’s leather export speeds up after getting over diplomatic crisis with Russia
